Category — Holiday
time to package…
… your homemade vanilla extract. That is, if you made it back on October 1st when I posted THIS. Even if you were a few days or even 2 weeks behind me in getting yours in the bottle, don’t worry, go ahead and package it up today.
Here are the six little bottles I made. I used a small funnel to transfer the liquid into each container then folded each of the vanilla beans in half and stuck one into each container before closing.
December 10, 2011 No Comments
Game Time!
Neither Dave nor I have been home together since last week, so there has been no cooking of any sort occurring in my kitchen all week long! On top of that, not much progress has been made on the Christmas decorating front. I think I am in denial that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away. The cart by the pool and this cute vintage toy bin, that I recently found, are the ONLY two decorations I have up so far. Seriously, no tree, no nothing yet!
December 8, 2011 9 Comments
Crafts 101 – Part 3
In the top photo, you are feasting your eyes upon Peggy’s scrumptious “Feliz Navidad” wreath. And below is my “Joyeux Noel” banner, not yet attached to a wreath. I still need to get to Trader Joe’s to pick up my fresh wreath… I’ll get there…
December 7, 2011 2 Comments
festive duck
First things first – Happy Birthday to my BBF, Jennifer Markett, who lives in Illinois! I LOVE YOU! And if you were here with me, I would be serving you this wonderful duck strudel! xoxo
Pictured above is my collection of authentic vintage French confit pots. Pretty, aren’t they? Duck confit has been a preservation method, for cooking and keeping duck in its rendered fat in France, for centuries. It results in supremely tender, moist, and extremely flavorful duck. You can then sear the duck legs in a hot skillet and serve them as is, shred the meat and add it to salads, or into the delicious and festive strudel recipe, I have for you below.
One of the great things about this strudel is that you can assemble the entire thing a month in advance and freeze it. Pop it in the oven for your Christmas celebrations and impress your guests! It is out of this world glorious!
A sealed glass jar of confit may be kept in the refrigerator for up to six months, or several weeks if kept in a reusable plastic container. To maximize preservation, the fat should top the meat by at least one inch. As the fat turns solid and prevents any air from reaching the meat, so basically the confit technique is a way of hermetically sealing the meat. The cooking fat acts as both a seal and preservative and results in a very rich taste.
I have been collecting authentic confit pots from France for a while now. Before refrigerators, the pots were used to “refrigerate” the confit. The entire inside of the pot is glazed and the glaze drips decoratively down the outside rim of the pot. The rest of the outside of the pot is left unglazed. The pot was filled with the duck and sealed with the fat. The pot was then buried in the cold mud and the unglazed outside of the pot would soak up that coldness and keep the duck confit perfectly chilled until ready to dig out and use.
The amount of duck confit used in this recipe is small, only 4 ounces. So instead of going to the trouble to make my own confit, I purchased a leg quarter from Chef Vincent Guerithault of the famed Vincent’s on Camelback. Call ahead, and Chef Guerithault will happily sell you some too. Or you can make your own duck confit, I’ve included a recipe from Epicurious.com at the bottom of this post. It is not difficult, just time-consuming. You will need to salt the duck for at least 24 hours before beginning and you have to render duck fat from the duck skin, which I have posted about before. The link on how to do that is there in the recipe too. But if you just purchase the confit, you can get going on the strudel recipe…. right now!
December 3, 2011 1 Comment
pink and green…
… is kinda of red and green, which makes this very pretty appetizer or brunch pizza perfect for Christmas.
Naan can be found on the bread aisle at most grocery stores, at Trader Joe’s, or at Costco. And smoked mozzarella with other specialty cheeses. But if you can’t find the mozzarella, substitute smoked Gouda.
December 2, 2011 1 Comment
5 days late
Ready to make your pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving? Yeah, sorry I didn’t get this recipe up before the big feast. But maybe you will need to make a pumpkin pie for Christmas, in which case, this is perfect timing!
November 28, 2011 No Comments
rear view window
Thanksgiving 2011 Photo Album
This is how it always begins… the bird goes into the oven…
My Dad always brings the Beaujolais Nouveau!
Anticipation – potato bread rolls! A Hopkins’ Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition!
November 26, 2011 2 Comments
Thanksgiving Greetings
November 24, 2011 2 Comments
marriage
Today, I offer you a last-minute dessert idea for Thanksgiving. I originally made this apple crisp last week in my “Thanksgiving Leftovers” cooking class at Les Gourmettes. While I was making it, I was telling the students about the remarkable De Lujo Margarita and gave them the recipe for it. As I am going about these two tasks, measuring out the ingredients for the apple crisp and reciting the ingredients for the margarita, it dawns on me that it would be amazing to blend the two… and that is how this Margarita Apple and Oatmeal Crisp was born! A sweet and happy little marriage.
If you would rather make the original apple crisp, then use 1 1/2 cups of water in place of the first 6 ingredients in the recipe (the 3/4 cup water through the 1/2 teaspoon Grand Marnier). And be careful to keep an eye out for the ingredients that are marked “divided”. Those ingredients are used in both the apple and the crisp parts of the recipe, so be extra mindful while reading and measuring.
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November 22, 2011 4 Comments
Tip Time – no stress allowed!
Before we get to today’s timely tip, I want to remind you that if you need help with a Thanksgiving timeline, CLICK HERE. And if you are looking for Thanksgiving recipes – go to the “Complete Recipe Index” over there on the left and scroll down to the red “Holidays” section and then scroll down to “Thanksgiving” where there are more than 30 Thanksgiving recipes awaiting you.
Weekly Tip #7
I know that at least some of you are hosting Thanksgiving in 3 days and that you are stressing. One of the major stresses is, “How am I going to get everything done?!?” The reason this is common stress is that many of us, including me, don’t seem to be able to delegate tasks. Even though several guests and family members have offered to help – it is hard to begin to even know where to start delegating when all the burners are blazing, timers are going off, and your mind is racing. It seems as though it is just easier to do everything yourself. The solution to this common problem? Decide today what you can have people do for you when crunch time comes. Remember, you are going to have some stress because… it’s a holiday and everyone is around you!
Make a list of non-cooking tasks – the last thing you need is more bodies in the kitchen. And make sure everything needed to complete those tasks is in plain sight, otherwise, you’ll get stressed telling people what drawer or cupboard to find things in, or end up dropping what you’re doing and getting it yourself.
November 21, 2011 3 Comments
